Fred Scott Chaise lounge, 1970

Fred Scott Chaise lounge, 1970 Leather, chromium-plated steel, acrylic. 75 x 175 x 70 cm Frame impressed The Duke Of Edinburgh Prize For Design 1970 Patrick Rylands. Footnotes: Provenance Patrick Ryland, London, United Kingdom Nick Wright Co-author of Cut and Shut: The History of Creative Salvage, London, 2012 An elegant prize for elegant design I was four when I first encountered Patrick Ryland. A friend had a box of PlayPlax, Perspex squares that slotted together to build imagined structures. My builds remained incomplete due to my mother's insistence we went home for dinner, my pleas for a box of my own met with the same response that has torpedoed many an architectural vision; the materials were too expensive. My mother's verdict on PlayPlax left me with a still unfulfilled desire to become an architect and a lifelong quest for good design. My second encounter with Patrick was at Camden market in 1996. We had taken on an arch in Camden market to sate that same quest. Inside we sold furniture, outside, the odds and ends lotted up with the one item we had actually bid for in some provincial sale. One Saturday morning a gentleman with a barboured beard picked up a ceramic pig from our junk tray. 'Well that's worth more than the two pounds you've got on it,' he said. We told him he could have it for the 2 pounds all the same. He paid but returned the next Saturday with a 20 pound note. 'I sold the Plichta pig for 40 pounds,' he said. 'This is your half.' Patrick stopped by our arch for coffee every Saturday morning from then on. We became friends. He invited Swati and I to his home in Belsize Park where he and Lilliana, an illustrator, remained part of a dwindling group of creatives who had colonised the area in the sixties. Patrick's studio was in the garden room to the rear of the flat. His desk, and the steel and leather chaise-longue adjacent, were surrounded by a huge collection of objects begun whilst a student at the RCA. Shelves displayed phenolic Radios and 60s TVs, there were drawers full of enamel badges, cabinets of early English ceramics - and toys. Patrick collected toys as an inspiration for his own work and, displayed amidst early German tin toys were his own designs. Patrick told me that the interlocking coloured squares that so fascinated me as a child, first took shape during his summer vacation from the RCA. At home in Hull, he had cut out Perspex squares with a fret saw and brought a construction into Hornsey Potteries where he worked as a decorator. Desmond Rawson, his boss, noticed the sculpture sitting on his desk and offered to make an introduction to Trendon. PlayPlax was an instant hit. The toy epitomised the seventies; unlike Airfix or Lego, it came with no instructions so encouraged freeform play. The primary colours too could be 'mixed' through the translucence. Indeed, there is no better illustration of PlayPlax role in the development of artistic imagination than a quote from Patrick's God daughter. Used to test prototypes, Rachel Whiteread credited Play Plax as the inspiration for her installation at Tate modern in 2005. Patrick won the Duke of Edinburgh Prize for Elegant Design in 1970 for PlayPlax and other designs. On the judging panel were Mary Quant, Robert Heritage and Robin Day. Part of the prize was money to enough to commission another piece from a designer of the recipient's choice. Patrick asked his RCA friend, Fred Scott, to design a chaise-longue for the new home which the success of his work, not least PlayPlax which sold over a million copies, afforded him. Scott went on to design the Supporto range for Hille, still in production today, Patrick continued to design toys that fired the imagination of generations of kids. He remains the youngest ever recipient of the Duke of Edinburgh Award for Design, an achievement commemorated by Fred Scott's chaise-longue. It is a design just as elegant as those for which the prize was awarded, and remained in pride of place in Patrick's studio until he vacated it earlier this year. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: TP TP For auctions held in Scotland: Lots will be moved to an offsite storage location (Constantine, Constantine House, North Caldeen Road, Coatbridge ML5 4EF, Scotland, UK) and will only be available for collection from this location at the date stated in the catalogue. Please refer to the catalogue for further information. For all other auctions: Lots will be moved to an offsite storage location (Cadogan Tate, Auction House Services, 241 Acton Lane, London NW10 7NP, UK) and will only be available for collection from this location at the date stated in the catalogue. Please note transfer and storage charges will apply to any lots not collected after 14 calendar days from the auction date. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing